With as many titles as Prince Henry holds you might imagine he was a master of time management and that I am sure he was. But he also needed to take “business trips” sometimes for extended periods of time. He made regular excursion to Roslyn Castle, in addition to the rest of the five hundred properties that were contained in his estate.
In 1384 he visited Roslyn to arrange a donation of land for his cousin, Sir James St. Clair, Baron of Longformacus, the deed of donation was witnessed by five Nobles During 1385 he was also away from the islands for a prolonged period of time. A large English army under King Richard II marched on Scotland.
Prince Henry spent several weeks in this campaign. The Templar's under his command defended Scotland and followed the English into the northern provinces of England and laid siege to Carlisle Castle.
This defense of Scotland prevented Henry from returning to Orkney for several month's. When he did return he continued with his responsibilities to Queen Margaret, maintaining law and order among the rough and tumble islanders, arranging trading relationships managing infrastructure projects and making occasional excursions to his properties to the south.
Queen Margaret was ruler of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Her infant son was King of these kingdoms but died as a child in 1389. She realized that her Royal subjects, mainly the men would rather be ruled by a man so she adopted a 5/yo boy named Eric of Pomerania as her heir. Then she persuaded the council of Electors, which Prince Henry was a member of, to recognize Eric as rightful heir to the three Kingdoms, which in effect left her in charge of the Kingdoms until he came of age.
The charter proclaiming Eric as heir to the throne of the three Kingdoms and was signed by Vinold, Archbishop of Drontheim; Prince Henry Sinclair Earl of Orkney; various bishops and nobles of the council. Prince Henry was at Helsingborg in Sweden on July 9, 1389 when Eric was acclaimed as King of the country and was also present in September in 1389 when Eric was crowned King of Norway.
Nicolo Zeno was a younger brother of Carlo Zeno who Prince Henry had met on the crusades, and earlier in Denmark in 1364. Nicolo was almost as skilled and experienced as his brother. He was a Captain of a galley in a war against the Genoese. He had served at one time as the Venetian Ambassador to Ferra in northern Italy.
His personal wealth that he used to build and outfit a ship for voyages to the northern waters, was such that he was one of the richest men in Venice. At all times he kept his family informed of his progress through a series of letters to Antonio and Carlo.
Two hundred and fifty years later a descendant edited and published and these became known to history as the Zeno Narrative. Nicolo describes passing through the straits of Gibraltar and on to Flanders and England. He continues with an account of a terrible storm that resulted in a shipwreck that I described at the Island of Fer.
Prince Henry is described as lord of the islands of Frislanda and Portlanda, which is the ancient Italian version of Fer Island, Portlanda being Orkney. He further describes Prince Henry as war like, valiant, especially famous in naval exploits, and a “great lord who ruled certain islands called Portlanda which laid to the south of Frislanda”
Besides being described as lord of these islands he goes further and describes him as Duke of certain estates in Scotland, Prince Henry invited Nicolo and his crew to serve aboard his fleet, and they shared navigational techniques and knowledge.
Nicolo and his crew served in Prince Henry's Navy in the Shetland Islands for a period of time, the Prince showed his gratitude by granting Captain Nicolo Zeno the honor of Knighthood and rewarded his crew with handsome gifts.
As part of the Zeno Narratives there is a letter from Nicolo to his brother Antonio, requesting him to commission another ship to come out to the islands and join in the expedition.
Since Antonio had as great a desire as his brother to see the world and it's various
nations, and to make himself a great name, he bought a ship and directed his course that way.
After a long voyage full of many dangers, he joined Sir Nicolo in safety and was received by him
with great gladness, as his brother not only by blood, but also in courage.
In 1392 Queen Margaret contacted King Richard II of England to arrange safe passage for Prince Henry Sinclair Earl of Orkney and Barron of Roslyn to travel to London to lease three warships to make good the deficiency in the Norwegian fleet.
On March 10th, 1392 safe -conduct was granted to Prince Henry to enter England with a part of no more than twenty-four people. Anyone who was a fugitive from English law was excluded from the safe-conduct. This was good until September 29 of 1392.
It is safe to assume that Prince Henry brought some of his Italian sailors with him especially in light of what was about to take place. It is reasonable to assume that the Zeno brothers were compiling a list of nautical supplies needed for a trans-Atlantic voyage, while Prince Henry took care of state business for the crown.
After Prince Henry had the Shetland Islands operating to his standards he set a bought building a second Castle, perhaps fortress is more appropriate description. The foundation can still be seen to-day . near Lerwick Scotland in Bressay bay.
Captain Nicolo Zeno remained at Bressay and the following year, 1393, equipped three barks for a voyage of exploration.
He sailed north in July of 1393 and set foot on Greenland: here he found a monastery of the preaching friars. A church dedicated to St. Thomas by a hill which vomited fire like Vesuvius and Etna. There is a spring of hot water there which is used to heat both the church of the monastery and the chambers of the friars.
The water comes up into the kitchen so boiling hot that they use no other fire to cook their food. They also put their bread into brass pots without any water, and it is baked as if it were in a hot oven.
Dr William H Hobbs a geologist at the University of Michigan states that evidence of everything written in the Zeno Narrative has been discovered in that area of Greenland. As a result of the severe weather Nicolo encountered in Greenland He became ill and returned to the Shetland Islands where he died. His brother Antonio assumed his responsibility as Admiral of the Fleet and also inherited Nicolo's wealth and honor's.
The account of Nicolo's survey of Greenland and his death in the Shetland Islands were confirmed by Marco Barbaro in his work Discendenz Patrizie published in 1536, twenty -two years before the Zeno Narratives were published
Prior to the infamous voyage of 1398 Antonio Zeno writes a letter to Carlo's stating;
...this noble man (Prince Henry) is now determined to send me out with a
fleet towards these parts. There are so many that want to join on the
expedition on account of the novelty and the strangeness of the thing,
that I think we shall be very well equipped, without any public expense
at all
a descendant wrote two hundred years later: “ he set sail with many vessels and men, but he was not to be the commander, as he expected to be.” The Prince was in charge and three days before their scheduled departure the fisherman (guide) died. Despite that, however the expedition went ahead.
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